Carta del Director / Letter from the Director / Lettre du Directeur / Carta do Diretor

Letter from the Director of the Colombian Military Academy

Jorge Arturo Salgado Restrepo¹

¹ Brigadier General in the National Army of Colombia; Master in Financial Management, Autonomous University of Mexico; Master in National Security and Defense, Escuela Superior de Guerra. Bogotá, Colombia. Email: director@esmic.edu.co.

The January-June 2015 edition of the Colombian Journal for Military Studies -'Revista Científica General José María Córdova' is finally ready! Besides, there is a rewarding novelty: the journal has been selected for inclusion into the SciELO Colombia-Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Thompson Reuters international indexes. These organizations made a favorable decision based on the successful evaluation processes of the applicant journals. Each editon of the Journal shows the commitment of the Colombian Military Academy (ESMIC) with the promotion of scientific culture through the publication and distribution of studies on the military sciences and related fields.

A summary of the content of this issue is featured below.

The Military Studies section has the following two articles: “The Historic Events of US Foreign Policy Towards Colombia, Prior to 1998 Plan Colombia's Enactment”, written by María Catalina Monroy-Hernández, PhD, based on her doctoral thesis defended at Universidad Externado de Colombia; and the article in English “Full Spectrum Operations: the Rationale Behind the 2008 Russian Military Reform?”, by Andrés Eduardo Fernández-Osorio, Major in the National Army of Colombia and PhD candidate, based on his master's dissertation completed at University College London, United Kingdom and at National Research University-Higher School of Economics, in Moscow, Russian Federation.

The Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law section contains the articles “Particular Experiences of Women in Processes of Human Mobility: Some Views on Their Welfare” by Professor Elba María Bermúdez Quintana, PhD, who bases her paper in her doctoral thesis defended at Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain, enriching it with new contributions, particularly regarding the challenges in ensuring the equality of rights and respect for the human dignity of women; and the article “Implications of Control Conventionality: Radilla Pacheco vs Mexico verdict and the Case of the Slaughter of Santo Domingo vs Colombia”, by Professors Alfonso Jaime Martínez-Lazcano from Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, México, Eduardo Santiago-Pérez from Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, México, and Jaime Alfonso Cubides-Cárdenas from Universidad Católica de Colombia, in Bogotá.

The Education section consists of three articles: “The Colombian Dual Apprenticeship System: the Case of the Business University Foundation of the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá Uniempresarial. The Present Challenges in the Perception of Graduades and Businessmen” by Leonor Yaneth Goe Rojas-Hernández, PhD, a paper derived from her doctoral thesis completed at Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, México; “The Pedagogical Models from a Psychological and Spiritual Dimension” by Alexander Ortiz-Ocaña, PhD, Jorge Oswaldo Sánchez-Buitrago, PhD, and Iván Manuel Sánchez-Fontalvo, PhD, Professors at Universidad del Magdalena, in Santa Marta, Colombia; “Building Communal Tissue from the Perspective of New School in Colombia. A Case Study” -an article based on a master's dissertation defended at Universidad de La Salle, by Professors Diana Carolina Suárez-Díaz, from Universidad de San Buenaventura, Colombia, and Andrea del Pilar Liz and Carlos Fernando Parra-Moreno, from Universidad del Tolima, Colombia.

The Science and Technology section contains four articles: “Science cannot determine human values” -an Spanish translation of the original version in English, by Professor Brian D. Earp, from Oxford University, United Kingdom, a research associate at Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics; the article in Portuguese “Rastreamento de rosto como ferramenta interativa e de monitoramento do estado emocional do usuário” (System to Track Factions as an Interactive and Monitoring Tool for the User's Particular Style), by Professors Alvaro Uribe-Quevedo, PhD, from Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, Bogotá, Colombia, and Silas Alves dos Reis, from Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil; “Relationship between Body Composition and Physical Performance of the 'General Jose Maria Cordova' Military Academy”, by MsC Sergio Mauricio Castañeda-Tovar, a graduate with a degree in Physical Education, and by MsC Ninosca Sofía Caiaffa-Bermúdez, a nutricionist and sports dietitian, both of them researchers at the Center for Research on Physical Culture CICFI - by its Spanish acronym, from the Colombian Military Academy in Bogotá, Colombia; “Accounting Representation Crisis in Oil Industry: Assembling Heteroglossias of Power”, by public accountants José Manuel Mora-Álvarez, Olga Lucía Martínez-Paredes, Martha Verónica Pardo-Soto and Jeison Cantillo-Flórez, who submitted an article based on their master's dissertations in accounting at Universidad Libre, Bogotá, Colombia.

Lastly, the History section has the article “Hispanic Heritage Modernity in the Military Sciences in Colombia” by Ricardo Esquivel-Triana, PhD and professor at Escuela Superior de Guerra, Bogotá, Colombia.

The Exempla Artium (artistic expression) section offers a selection of paintings by Rafael Lopez Angarita, Sergeant in the National Army of Colombia, psichologist and specialist in law psychology from Universidad Catolica, Colombia.

We kindly encourage all members of the academic community to publish their scientific articles on military studies and related fields, in Spanish, English, French or Portuguese, for the next issues of the General José María Córdova Military Journal (Rev. Cient. Gen. José María Córdova, issn 1900-6586). Additional information about Rev. Cient. Gen. Jose Maria Cordova is available here:

Email: revistacientifica@esmic.edu.co.
Website: http://www.esmic.edu.co, http://www.scielo.org.co/
Editor-in-Chief: Jesús Alberto Suárez Pineda, jesusasp@gmail.com.
Escuela Militar de Cadetes “General José María Córdova”
Research Directorate
Calle 80 No. 38-00, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
Teléfono: (+57 1) 3770850 ext. 1115